Forward slashes

[Barry Karas]

14/Dec/2005 12:38

I can use short lines for dates etc. in the My Documents folder...but
I cannot use forward slashes in that folder.

How could I use forward slashes?

Thank you,

Barry Karas

 

[Galen]

In Barry Karas <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

14/Dec/2005 12:38

I can use short lines for dates etc. in the My Documents folder...but
I cannot use forward slashes in that folder.

How could I use forward slashes?

Thank you,

Barry Karas

The slashes, forwards or backwards, are dis-allowed characters in folder
names. As are ?,<, and > for instance.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/

"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of
existence." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Barry Karas]

Right, they're disallowed. But why - and how can the restrictions be
overcome?

Thank you,

Barry Karas

******************************************************************

<In

Barry Karas <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> had this to
say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:


The slashes, forwards or backwards, are dis-allowed characters in folder

 

[Vanguard]

Right, they're disallowed. But why - and how can the restrictions be
overcome?

Well, how do YOU specify the path to a file? The rest of us using Windows
use something like C:\path\file. Guess you don't know about UNCs used to
specify networked resources, like shared folders, such as //hostname/path.

You don't get to use slashes because they have a specific use. You don't
get to use * or ?, either, because those are wildcards. In Unix, you *can*
use all characters but most users cannot: they get to use what their command
interpreter permits because some are designated for special use (just like
in Windows) so using those characters requires an app that can directly
enter the characters in the file system rather than through a UI.

You can't because you can't. I don't recall a single operating system that
lets you use every possible character in a path for filename. Why? Because
they want to provide additional features that require identifying those
features with special characters. Would you like to revert back to a file
system where the only path was root and you had to pile all your thousands
of files into that one path?

 

[Galen]

In Barry Karas <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Right, they're disallowed. But why - and how can the restrictions be
overcome?

Thank you,

Barry Karas

******************************************************************

message <In

I also responded, much akin to Vanguard's response, to the email. Is there a
specific reason you wanted to do this?

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/

"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of
existence." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Barry Karas]

Well, how do YOU specify the path to a file? The rest of us using Windows

use something like C:\path\file. Guess you don't know about UNCs used to
specify networked resources, like shared folders, such as //hostname/path.

Drive\path\filename, like you do.

UNC = ?

You don't get to use slashes because they have a specific use. You don't
get to use * or ?, either, because those are wildcards. In Unix, you
*can* use all characters but most users cannot: they get to use what their
command interpreter permits because some are designated for special use
(just like in Windows) so using those characters requires an app that can
directly enter the characters in the file system rather than through a UI.

What is the specific use?

You can't because you can't. I don't recall a single operating system that
lets you use every possible character in a path for filename. Why?
Because they want to provide additional features that require identifying
those features with special characters. Would you like to revert back to
a file system where the only path was root and you had to pile all your
thousands of files into that one path?

Of course not. But MS seems t/b doing so - at least in MS applications in
WinXP Pro w/ SP2. Everything is saved to the My Documents folder.

Thanks,

Barry Karas

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Drive\path\filename, like you do.

UNC = ?

UNC seems to stand for "Universal Naming Convention." This is a method for
locating files, disks and printers on other pcs on a local area network (LAN.)